Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

Contrastingly, the other half, forged from the machine god's own corrupted essence, emitted an eerie darkness that seemed to devour the surrounding light. This malevolent energy writhed and coiled, emanating a palpable aura of discord and decay. Every sinew of this tainted force strained against the purity of the lunar energy, seeking dominance over the newly formed weapon.

As the two opposing energies clashed within the bow, a fierce struggle ensued, their conflicting essences intertwining in a chaotic dance of power. The celestial energy fought to cleanse and purify, while the corrupt energy sought to corrupt and consume. The resulting conflict created an unstable equilibrium, with the bow pulsating erratically as the opposing forces vied for control.

"This could be a problem…" Rain said.

Blocking the charged attack of a weapon of that size would be difficult, to say the least… at the same time. Dodging wasn't really an option… if he were to dodge, the machine god could target his friends, or Earth for that matter. They were all positioned behind him, after all.

"What is wrong? Don't you have anything smart to say?"

"I do have, but I need a better audience aside from you," Rain shrugged.

Things would have been easier if the enemy was actually holding the bow, but an arrow of light and darkness was formed and then nocked without the use of the enemy's hands. The projectile was being charged with more energy, so time was running out.

"I suppose it can't be helped…" Rain said and then raised the ominous sword.

The energy of the weapon began to vibrate, and then the machine god realized that he had to stop Rain. However, before that could happen, everything in the field of vision of the enemy suddenly disappeared and he had no idea what had happened.

The machine god decided to attack since his arrow would hit something important to Rain, but soon he felt his body extremely sluggish… even his mind was having a hard time working properly… before long, the machine god felt his body being enveloped by something and his body began to freeze while being encased by a giant ice coffin.

Outside the ice coffin, Rain saw the whole thing decreasing in size and then taking the shape of the machine god… he had planned to use all that mana to attack and destroy the machine god, but that would do as long as he kept the machine god sealed for a while, it would be enough.

A spell of that level should be beyond Rain's skill; even if his specialty was water magic, he shouldn't be able to use all the mana from the spirits to cover the enemy's body. That was why Light Speed came in handy, but using the technique in his brain, he was able to summon all that magic in a single moment before the enemy could react… that came with a price, though.

Rain's body returned to normal, and then he felt a terrible headache taking over his body… even though he wasn't in a human form when he used that much mana, his body was still suffering thanks to it.

The skill Light Speed leveled up.

The skill Light Frost Mastery leveled up.

The skill Time Dilation leveled up.

…

Rain also used time dilation on the ice to make the flow of time in the coffin pass a lot slower, so it made sense that Rain was suffering so much. While holding his head in pain, he coughed some blood, and then blood came out from his nose and ears.

"Shit… Terra will kill me If this doesn't kill me first," Rain said.

Rain had other things to worry about at the moment… the machine god began to shake in an ice coffin, so it seemed that trapping him within ice and time magic with the sole goal of preventing him from transmitting its existence to somewhere else was working,… but for how long?

"He can inform his friends of this if he escapes… and then I will have to think of another plan," Rain thought. "Still, what can I do now?"

"I can feel a large concentration of expanding corrupt energy on the head of the machine god… his main body should be there," Elisabetha said.

"Are you sure of that?" Rain asked.

"No, but you don't have any other choice," Elisabetha said.

She had a point… besides, high levels of corrupt energy usually mean one thing. With that in mind, Rain teleported to the head of the creature and then began to charge toward it with the sword in hand.

"Change your path to Information," Elisabetha said. "Even if you can't take all of his data, I can store most of it since I don't have a real body."

"How exactly?" Rain furrowed his eyebrows.

"Just do it!" Elisabetha shouted.

Rain didn't like those risky plans made on the spot… unless he made them on his own, but he decided to do that. When the tip of the ominous sword hit the forehead of the frozen machine god, the weapon pierced through it instantly and crossed hundreds of meters of the condensed metal.

The machine god sensed an opportunity to escape, and then a blast of miasma tried to leave through the hole, but all of that was absorbed by the ominous sword.

The skill Information Extraction leveled up.

The skill Information Extraction leveled up.

The skill Information Extraction leveled up.

…

Elisabetha's aura consumed all of the miasma, and at the same time, her anger began to be subdued since it was being used as fuel… at the same time, Rain saw countless images of the things that the machine god had seen himself… even though it was a fraction of all the data, Rain felt his head was about to split up.

In the end, the machine god stopped trying to escape… All of the miasma began to concentrate on a single spot to prevent Rain and Elisabetha from stealing more data, and then it began to assume a physical form.